


Falling Apart

by Nightblade



Category: Fallout (Video Games)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-18 08:09:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21890977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightblade/pseuds/Nightblade
Summary: Claire Jersum is returning home with her family from visiting relatives in Boston, but they are in for a horrifying twist to their trip.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time trying this so I apologize if it’s not the best. I will try to improve in the future. :)

Chapter 1 - Beginning of the End

This trip was the worst one of my life. What 16 year old girl would want to be in a stuffy car for hours to visit some smelly old relatives in a small town outside of Boston? I had to leave New York City with my cozy room, my friends, and the malls, all to see my crusty old grandparents. Their house was some worn one story wreck without even a Mr. Handy servant. So here I am sitting on some ancient looking couch that’s splitting at the seams and watching a show on a pathetic looking tv with spotty reception.  
“How do people live like this?” I wondered. My mom and dad were talking to my grandparents by the kitchen when my younger brother came into the room to bother me yet again. “Hey Claire, what ya watchin?” He asked as he practically jumping onto me. His name is James and he is big for his age, at 15 he is 6’1 and built tough which dwarfed me at 5’5 and slender. Dad won’t admit it but James is totally his favorite because he is the star quarterback for our high school football team, Go Raptors, bleh. “Get the fuck off me James!” I shouted as I pushed him off of me. I was not in the mood to be fucked with. “Gee sis that hurt.” James said in a mocking manner, grinning like an asshole. Then I heard my mom call from the kitchen “Claire! Language missy!”  
“But James was being a...” I tried to protest but my mom interrupted by saying “I don’t care what your brother did, watch your mouth.” I was furious, and James trying to stifle his stupid laughter was not helping. I scoffed and stormed away to the bathroom. It’s the one place I could have some privacy in this stupid house but even the bathroom was dated with it having some strange latch style lock. I fucking hate this place. The only modern things in this house are what we brought with us, it’s like these people were never introduced to civilized society. I sighed and took a deep breath. We would be leaving very soon and I can’t wait. I went to take a look in the mirror to check my hair and makeup, the Ms. Maid at our estate normally tended to this but with the week we’ve been here I’ve had to tend to it myself like some savage. My pretty blonde hair was dyed red shortly before our trip because it’s my friend groups’ new trend. With this trip and lack of maintenance though I would see the red starting to wear off. My makeup isn’t much better with it looking obviously hand done, it makes me feel sick.  
I jumped when there was a bang on the bathroom door and James said “Hey beauty queen it’s time to go.” “Fucking finally.” I thought and exited the bathroom. To be polite I said my goodbyes to my grandparents then raced to the car and cheered a little when we started heading home. My mom turned around to look at me from the passenger seat and said “Could you try to be a little more respectful Claire? They are your grandparents.” I crossed my arms and said “Could they be more civilized and not a part of the Stone Age? Why can’t they just visit us instead? That way I can actually live like a human.” My moms face turned visibly red, maybe insulting her parents wasn’t a good call because she yelled “Claire Jersum when we get home you are grounded! No friends, no mall, and no tv!” James sitting to my left was laughing at my humiliation, just making it that much worse. I was so angry. First she brings me out here to the middle of nowhere to live like a homeless person and now she is trying to take my life away. “You’re such a bitch!” I didn’t even realize I said anything till it was too late. James gasped and stared at me in shock. We both knew that after those words left my mouth that my life was truly over, I tried to plea with her “Mom wait I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...”. She held up her hand which was a sign that she was done talking, and she was pissed. My dad doesn’t ever do any parenting stuff if it’s negative, he’s very passive, so mom handles everything so what she says is law. She’s a bitch but she’s a bitch with power in the house and we all answer to her. With me pissing her off like this I can assume I won’t see the outside world for the rest of my autumn vacation.  
The next few hours passed by in silence. My parents were focused on the road, my brother on his comics, and me mulling over the end of my social life. I was staring aimlessly out the window at the hills and trees that dotted the landscape when in the distance I was able to see the outskirts of New York City. We were almost home, just another thirty or so minutes until... A blinding light. Screaming. A crash. Intense heat. Those were the last things I remember before everything went black. I was being shaken and I could hear someone calling my name, it sounded so far away but it was getting closer. The shaking was getting harder and I could hear the shouting more clearly. I was able to slowly open my eyes to see a blurry figure kneeling over me. It took a minute for the figure to come into focus for me to see my brother James shaking me and saying things like “Stay with me Claire.” And “Please, I cant lose you too.” I tried to speak but it came out as a groan. He sighed in relief and said “Thank you, thank you thank you.” He just kept repeating it over and over, and I think he was crying because I felt water droplets on my face. My eyes cleared more to see James on his knees over me crying and still saying “Thank you.” He looked like shit, his short blonde hair was matted and covered with what looked like gray snow and he had cuts and grime all over his body. His clothes looked especially atrocious, they were burnt and ripped to the point where their usefulness was in question. I tried to cover my eyes but found that I couldn’t move my arms well so I tried to shout “Cover yourself for the love of god, I think I’m gonna puke!” I don’t know if he didn’t hear me or if he just ignored me because he was still just crying. For the love of god a guy like him crying, it’s embarrassing. I decided to just look away but what I saw made my stomach run cold. It was our car crashed into an oncoming car but what had my attention was the object that had broken through the windshield and rested where our parents would have been sitting. The object looked like a large splinter of tree that crashed into the car and all that was visible of my parents was their necks down, along with the blood pooling beneath their closed car doors. I couldn’t speak, my throat felt dry, so dry that I broke into a coughing fit that had me gagging and retching. James had finally stopped crying and was trying to hug me which didn’t help my convulsing stomach. After a few minutes I was finally done and I was able to make it onto my hands and knees after batting away James to give me space. I looked at James who looked like a panicked child with his wide teary eyes with snot running down his face and his mouth contorted into a mournful gape. I needed to know what happened so I staggered to me feet, almost falling over a few times till I could finally stand and see what once was New York City. All there was now is a large cloud shaped like a mushroom and what looked like gray snow raining from the sky. It had covered everything around us as far as I could see. “What... what happened... our home...” I said weakly as I felt tears begin running down my face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire and James are forced to face some harsh realities of a nuclear fallout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING  
> CHAPTER HAS DISGUSTING GRAPHICS
> 
> Also I apologize if the chapters seem short. I might try to lengthen them in the future as long as it doesn’t interfere with the content fluidity

Chapter 2 - Fallout

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The city was just gone, everyone is dead and our home is destroyed. I fell to my knees as all strength left my body. We lost everything, James is all I have left. I looked down at my clothes to find my body covered in cuts and grime like James and my clothes in similar tattered condition as his. I let out a small pitiful squeak as I clutched my half bare chest and covered my partially exposed crotch shaking as I cling to my last shred of dignity. I looked back at James who seemed frozen in place with his face still in despair. I can’t do anything to help him in this condition, I need to change clothes first. I tried to stand again but didn’t have enough strength and just fell back to my knees. “Fuck!” I shouted as the pain started to creep into my body from whatever happened. I dragged myself through the strange snow to the car so I could get to my suitcase and fresh clothes. I popped the trunk after much effort, it seems that the electric opener wasn’t working so I had to open it manually. I found my suitcase and found anew set of clothes that were untouched by whatever happened to my current ones. I started to remove the clothes from my body and to my horror pieces of my flesh came off with them. The pain was unreal, I could feel each nerve tearing and the gushing of the blood. Each article tore off flesh in their respective areas, the loose fitting shirt with small amounts of arm stomach and back flesh, and pants with slivers of leg skin and gore. They pain for those areas made me cry but I’m not done, not yet. Next was the bra, luckily almost the whole left breast was exposed but the right one wasn’t so lucky, peeling the right cup off like a band-aid with each passing second being pure agony. Watching small amounts of fatty skin being pulled off the breast and a larger tendril taking more than the others with it. The pain had me screaming, never having felt such pain in my life my body was screaming and my vision was blurred as I ripped the last bit of charred bra from my ruined body. As I stood there leaning against the car half naked gasping for air and dripping blood I began to cry. “One more place to go...” I started bawling as I looked down to the remains of my undergarments. I braced myself as much as I could and began to pull the underwear off and the screaming began.   
I don’t know when I came to but I was fully naked and leaning against the car gasping for air. “I did it.” I said through gasps of air. After a few minutes of dreading it I began to rise back to my feet with the help of the car and shakily reclothe. Putting the clothes on was much easier than taking them off but the feeling of constant pain is always there and the dampness of blood soaking through the new clothes. But at least I was covered and protected, to an extent. I started to move back to where James was, every move a twinge of agony. I was walking at first but ended up back on my hands and knees crawling back to James who was still on his knees, frozen with that look of disparity on his face. It seems he was oblivious to what I had endured because when I called out to him as I approached he just turned towards me and said “Oh Claire, it’s you. I was just thinking about when mom and dad are gonna come get us.” The look in his eyes said he wasn’t all there, it’s as if he is looking past me. I can’t leave him like this, I said “Come on James you need to get out of those clothes and put on new ones. Let’s get you to the car and you can change. He didn’t say anything, just stared blankly into space. I have to help him, I’m his big sister. I looked at him and realized what I have to to, and I am not happy. “Fuck me.” I muttered as I crawled back to the car for a change of clothes for him. The snowy substance is still falling making a thicker layer on the ground gives me an easier time crawling around so I get the clothes and return to James promptly. “Now for the disgusting part...” I whined. And as I reached for James’s shirt I muttered a quick half hearted “I hate you...” I tried to work fast as to not make him suffer like I did but his wounds were definitely worse. The skin peeled off of his body giving him a series of stripes. So far so good but the one part that has me repulsed is the underwear. I know he needs them but I can’t bring myself to look. The worst part is throughout this process he retained his hollow eyed stare and didn’t utter a single thing. I can’t bear to look as I find guys a little repulsive the idea of seeing whatever is in there terrifies me. I shut my eyes as I grab the waistband of his underwear but I grabbed too tightly, I could feel my fingernails slicing into his flesh like butter and I started to gag. I loosened my grip a little and began to pull and though I didn’t see it the sound was worse. I found myself squeezing my eyes ever more tightly as I heard the squishing wet sound of his flesh being pulled off like stringed cheese then snapping like a broken rubber band. After I finally had the underwear all the way off I threw them as hard as I could into the distance and dressed James before I lost my nerve. After I finished reclothing him I vomited the last contents of my stomach and began dry heaving while crying. “Why is this happening?” I thought. “Is this because of how I was? I am? Is this my punishment?” I want to go home...   
James despite having to have felt immense pain during that process still just had that hollow stare but he had tears in his eyes, probably because it hurt like hell. I shakily got to my feet and felt a wave a nausea hit me and I fell back to my knees. I looked at James and said “James, I’m hungry. We need food.” No response from James. “James I know how you feel but we need to stay alive, let’s work together in this. I need you James.” He kept that stare but managed to mutter the words “Need me.” Under his breath. I tried to help pull him up and said “Yes James. I need you. And you need me.” He slowly got to his feet with my help and muttered “Need you.” I managed a small smile and said “Yes James, we need each other.” We managed to get to our feet with each other’s help each providing support for the other and he said a bit louder “Need each other.” I remember a gas station back the way we came about a mile or so, that would have some food for sure.   
Hopefully.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire and James pass out from exhaustion just before reaching their goal.

Chapter 3 - Survival 

We’ve been walking for what feels like forever and it’s getting harder to keep moving. My injuries sting and ache as the blood still dampens my clothes. I’m surprised that I can still move but I’m so tired and I can feel my legs about to buckle, James isn’t doing so hot either. His face seems pale and is dragging his feet through the gray powder that coats the ground and continues to fall. I tighten my grip on him to try and pull him along so he keeps moving. “Come on James, we’re almost there.” “At least I hope we were.” I thought. When I first came to it was easy enough to see but now so much of that gray snow stuff was falling that it made it impossible to see very far, the horizon just looked like one enormous gray wall. “Can’t see shit out here.” I complained. As we kept walking I saw something outlined up ahead on the side of the road, after another minute of trudging down the road I could see it was the gas station. “There it is James! We’re almost there!” I’ve never been so excited to see a gas station before, I always thought they were disgusting and just chem dealer meeting places. After I said we were almost there James collapsed and refused to get up. “James? James get up. James?!” I didn’t know what to do, we are almost there and I was so tired. He fell face down and could suffocate like that so I dropped to my knees to roll him over so he could breathe. He felt so heavy that it took all of my strength to get him on his back. The strain must have caused my cuts to open more because the stinging worsened as if knives were being slid all over my body then was accompanied by the increase in bleeding. My body drained of energy collapsed onto the ground next to James. I just want to sleep, I’m so tired and so cold. I could feel the snow from the sky starting to cover me like a blanket, a nice warm blanket encouraging me to rest. I could feel my eyes forcing their way shut when I tried with all my effort to get up to get us to the gas station, to the place that will help us survive. All I could muster though was the strength to look towards the building and try in vain to raise myself before yet again collapsing and succumbing to exhaustion.  
I was back at my grandparents house with my parents and brother. I was sitting on their couch watching tv and James came in to bother me again. “What ya watchin?” He asked with a big stupid grin. He was unharmed and full of life like he was before that light. I turned to the kitchen and there were my parents talking to my grandparents like they were before we were about to leave. They were fine, they were alive. I felt tears rolling down my cheeks as I started to sob, I was so mean to them for so many years and now they’re gone. James started teasing me “What’s wrong crybaby Claire?” I looked back at him through tear filled eyes and realized that I miss him teasing me and being annoying. It was who he was but now, he’s a pale shadow of what he was. I heard my mom call my name “Claire?” I turned and replied through sobs “y-yes mom?” But she didn’t hear me. “Claire?” She kept calling out to me “Claire? Claire can you hear me?” I called out to her saying I could “Yes mom I can!” Tears flowing down my cheeks I got up to run to her, to embrace her. I tried to reach her but she seemed to be getting farther and farther away as if I was moving away from her. I tried to run as fast as I could towards her yelling “I’m coming mom! I’m coming!” But I only drifted farther away. I was screaming in anger and helplessness. I couldn’t reach her no matter how hard I tried but I could hear her call for me. “Claire? Can you hear me?” I was being pulled farther and farther from my mom until suddenly there was a blinding light and I watched my mom and dad disappear for a second time. I screamed in rage and agony, I kept screaming until I saw spots and my voice broke, then everything went black.  
“Claire?”  
A voice called out to me. I felt my eyes struggle to open but I managed. When I came to I saw a woman crouched over me, once she saw my eyes open she let out a sigh of relief and said “Oh thank goodness you’re awake.” I was too tired to move anything except my head, I looked at my immediate surroundings and noticed that James was close by and we were both propped up against a wall in some kind of office. There was a desk with a chair and a computer. The rest of the room was a couple filing cabinets and shelves. I managed to utter a whisper of a question “Where are we?” The woman seemed to be examining me, checking my eyes and head. She was touching me along my arms and legs making me feel very uncomfortable. “You’re at my gas station hun. You n your brother are in pretty bad shape.” We made it? No, we collapsed in the snow. I looked at her and asked “How did we get here? We didn’t make it. The last thing I remember was being faced down in the snow.” She looked at me and said “That ain’t snow hun, it’s ash. I almost didn’t see you, I went out to try and fix my car when I heard your brother weakly calling out from under a pile of ash.” Ash? That explained the color and why it felt warm but what would make all this ash? “James called out? Is he ok? He wasn’t talking when we were trying to get here.” She shook her head. “He ain’t doing so hot. The only thing he said was Claire and that’s what I assumed your name was since you were together. You’re lucky I found you too, another handful of minutes and you would have been smothered by thick layer of ash. When I found you I had to drag y’all in. I brought you first because you were easier but your friend here took me a bit.” I looked back at James who was pale, completely unlike my dream. He was breathing at least but his injuries looked bad. “He’s my brother, his name is James.” I told the woman. “And you are?” I asked turning back to her. She smiled at me and said “My name is Ellen. It’s nice to meet you both, I just wish it was under better circumstances. Oh here you must be hungry.” She turned to grab something and when she turned back around she handed me a box of fancylad snack cakes. They are far from my favorite but I suppose they will do for now. I managed to get enough energy to grab them and began to scarf down the whole box, I didn’t realize I was so hungry. Ellen looked over at James and said “He hasn’t come to since I brought you in. I tried to treat your injuries myself but I don’t know first aid and the first aid kit was mostly empty. All I could do was remove some exposed glass fragments and bandage some of the more serious cuts.” It hadn’t occurred to me but all of the cuts we had must have been from the glass from the car windows when they shattered on impact from that other car. As I swallowed the last of the cakes I asked Ellen “Did you see that light? It made our parents crash the car and...” I felt my heart drop. They were really gone, James and I are on our own. The tears began rolling down my cheeks at the thought of never seeing them again. Ellen handed me a tissue from a nearby drawer and looked down asking solemnly “You don’t know what that was, do you?” I wiped my eyes and blew my nose and managed a small “No.” She gave me a sad apologetic look and said “That was a bomb hun. We were at war and it looks like we just lost...”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire and Ellen have to face the reality of what they lost.

Chapter 4 - Realization 

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing “War? What war, there’s no way a war could have done this.” Tears started rolling down my cheeks as my mind flashed back to what I witnessed after the crash. That was a bomb, we were at war, we lost. All of these realities came crashing down on my and I thought my head would implode. Ellen sighed “You weren’t a very studious person were you? We’ve been at war with China for years, about what keeps changing depending on who you ask. And that bomb was an atomic one, capable of wiping entire cities away with a single bomb.” I looked up at her now pained expression as she covered her mouth and began crying as well. It was just setting in for her to, the realization of what just happened. We stayed like that for some time. I cried my eyes out for everything I lost and even more for the fact that I took it all for granted. Ellen seemed to be living her own torment as well as she wept shaking her head sullenly.   
I was lost in my own self pity when a groan from across the room got my attention. I looked up to see James was coming to. Thankful that at least he was still with me I lunged to embrace him and cry on his shoulder “At least I still have you.” I whispered. He must have heard me because he mumbled something in response but I couldn’t hear, after asking to repeat it I heard him say “I love you big sis.” I didn’t know what to say. He hasn’t called me big sis in years much less say I love you. I squeezed him tighter forgetting that I might hurt him but for now I was just so happy that he was here. I must have fallen asleep on his shoulder because when I came to there was a jacket draped over us and Ellen wasn’t in the office. I got up, surprised at how stable my legs were compared to before, and recovered James who must have fallen back asleep with me. He looked terrible after everything that happened but at least he looked relaxed sleeping. I left the office to see where Ellen went and I found her in the main shop area staring out the window. “Ellen are you ok?” I asked as I approached her. She nodded “I’m just coming to terms with the world we live in now and how it’s never gonna be the same again.” She pulled out a photo she had in her pocket, I only caught a small glimpse but I know it must have been her family. “I’m sorry Ellen. James and I are here for you, I know it’s not the same but we can stick together and help eachother.” She turned to look at me with tearful eyes “Like a family?” I nodded “Like a family.” I know we can’t replace what was lost but we needed to stick together especially at a time like this.


End file.
